TENSILE STRENGTH OF BANANA - BAMBOO - GLASS FIBER REINFORCED NATURAL FIBER COMPOSITES

The developments in the field of composite materials are growing tremendously day by day. One such development is the use of natural fibers as reinforcement in the composite material. This is attributed to the fact that natural fibers are environmental friendly, economical, easily available and non-abrasive. Mixing of natural fiber with Glass Fibers is finding increased applications. In this present investigation Banana - Bamboo - Glass fiber reinforced natural fiber composites is fabricated by Hand - Layup technique with varying fiber orientation such as [0(G)degrees , 90(BM)degrees, 0(BN)degrees, 0(G)degrees ], [0(G)degrees, 0(BM)degrees, +45(BN)degrees, 0(G)degrees] and [0(G)degrees, 0(BM)degrees, 90(BN)degrees, 0(G)degrees] and are tested for its tensile strength. The tensile strength of the fabricated composites is evaluated. The results indicated that the natural fiber composite with the fiber orientation of [0(G)degrees, 0(BM)degrees, 90(BN)degrees , 0(G)degrees] can withstand more load when compared to the samples with other fiber orientation. Nomenclature Used: BN - Banana fiber BM - Bamboo fiber G - Glass fiber